Exeter Crown Court heard the married father was arrested when detectives raided his home in Barnstaple, North Devon in September 2015

"They have sold the family home and moved a considerable distance away because of the fall out. He and his wife are still together.

"He wishes to get a new job, sort out his finances and buy a new home.

"He has had to tell his children what occurred and explain to them that their own father may be going to prison and that was very difficult for him."

Jailing Walsh for three years, Judge Geoffrey Mercer QC said: "Over a period of at least some months you were involved in the downloading and distribution of extreme images and videos portraying sexual abuse of children and you went to considerable lengths to try and conceal what you were doing.

"To state that your sexual interest in children, which underlies these offences, causes real concern in relation to someone in your position, is a massive understatement.

"But it needs to be clearly understood that there is no suggestion of any offending in the course of your work.

"Your career is of course at an end and to quote from one of the letters you have written to me 'through my own actions I have lost my job, my career, my reputation and caused great harm to those around me that I love'."

The judge also put Walsh on the sex offenders' register for life, imposed a sexual harm prevention order and ordered the destruction of his computer equipment.

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